Off-shore drilling platforms are large industrial structures used to extract natural resources, such as oil and/or gas, from the ocean floor. To facilitate their purpose, off-shore drilling platforms include a variety of powered equipment such as drills, motors, pumps, compressors, and other oil/gas extraction equipment. Although some off-shore drilling platforms are powered by local engine-driven generators, many drilling platforms rely on a supply of power from on-shore energy facilities due to high power demand and their remote location. In either case, such typical off-shore platforms may include some amount of local renewable energy production (e.g., via a local wind turbine) and/or energy storage.
The on-shore energy facilities provide power to the drilling platforms via a power supply interconnection, which may extend from the shore to the drilling platform. In a typical off-shore power distribution system, the power supply interconnection is embodied as a high voltage alternating current (HVAC) interconnection, which may connect multiple drilling platforms to support AC loads (e.g., AC motors or drills) of the drilling platform. Power transformers are needed at drilling platforms for voltage transformation between the HVAC power supply and the AC loads. In other systems, a high voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnection may be used to provide power to drilling platforms. In such systems, both AC/DC converters and power transformers are required at the drilling platforms to facilitate power conversion and voltage transformation between the HVDC power supply and the AC loads. Alternatively, in some cases, one drilling platform may be enhanced for central voltage transformation or both power conversion and voltage transformation.